


xxxHolic

by thefullmetaledwardelric



Series: A New Senshi [3]
Category: xxxHoLic
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-14
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-02-17 07:42:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2301857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefullmetaledwardelric/pseuds/thefullmetaledwardelric





	1. High Jacked

The expanse of the universe flew by Natalie again. It wasn’t so bad this time as she had practiced this so many times now. She wasn’t sure she would ever get used to it though. When she stepped out of the portal, she wasn’t where she had intended to be though. It appeared that she was in a traditional Japanese style house.

“Welcome, we’ve been expecting you young lady,” said the woman sitting on the couch behind Natalie.

Natalie quickly turned to see who had spoken to her. “Yuko?!” exclaimed Natalie. “What? How? This isn’t where I was trying to go.”

Yuko nodded. “That is true, but you need to come here first.”

“Hitsuzen right?”

“Cleaver girl. Good, you know of inevitability so it saves me having to explain it to you but that’s right. There’s something you need to obtain here first before you go off on your little journey.”

“I’m not sure I follow. There’s no wish I need granted at the moment that I can’t grant for myself.”

Yuko smirked. “Is that so? Watanuki, can you come here?”

Watanuki walked into the room and started speaking to Yuko but Natalie couldn’t understand a word he said. He sounded a bit agitated though but she knew that was normal for him when he spoke to Yuko. She did recognize that he was speaking Japanese though.

“Can you go to the storehouse and get the necklace that’s in the purple butterfly box?”

Watanuki responded again in Japanese and went off to do as Yuko had asked of him. Natalie guessed that he had agreed in some put upon way as he usually did when she had read the manga.

“Have you figured out what it is you need that you don’t have?” asked Yuko.

“Well I have a question, why is it that I can understand you but I can’t understand Watanuki?”

“Because young lady I’m special and you don’t know Japanese.”

“Alright, then I suppose what you’re telling me is that I need is a way to understand any language and have anyone else understand me.”

“Very good, and I can do that for you.”

“For a price right? I’ve read about you and this shop. You grant wishes in exchange for a fair and equitable price. So if I take this magical translator from you, what is my price going to be?”

“Nothing,” Yuko answered flatly.

“Nothing? How does it cost me nothing?”

“Simple, payment for this item has already been received.”

“From who?”

“Never mind that, it’s not important.”

“To you maybe, but I want to know who I at least owe a thank you to.”

“You’ll know someday.”

Natalie didn’t have a chance to argue any further. Watanuki had returned with the butterfly box that Yuko had asked for.

“Thank you Watanuki,” Yuko said as she took the box from him and opened its lid. Inside was a necklace that had a red jewel hung from a silver chain. “Come here,” Yuko said to Natalie.

She did as Yuko asked. Moving between the couch and the table that stood in front of it, Natalie knelt down in front of Yuko. She took the necklace from the box and put it around Natalie’s neck.

“It looks nice on you,” said Watanuki.

“Thanks. Hey wait a second! I can understand you now!”

“It’s a very powerful charm but you have to be wearing it around your neck for it to work.”

“I can’t just keep it in my pocket or in my hand?”

“No. Keep it around your neck.”

Natalie nodded. “Fine, at least it goes with my outfit.” She actually just now realized that she hadn’t transformed back into her normal self. Yuko hadn’t seemed fazed by it though but then Natalie didn’t think there was really anything that _could_ faze her.

“Watanuki, would you get us some tea and snacks?”

“Snacks!” yelled Mokona from behind the couch as he popped up. Natalie almost jumped out of her boots. She hadn’t realized that Mokona wasn’t around. “Watanuki! Don’t forget the sake too!”

“Oh make sure it’s the good stuff Watanuki!” For the first time since Natalie got here Yuko actually showed some enthusiasm.

Natalie didn’t really want to stick around here though. Her curiosity for the world she had actually wanted to go to was starting to eat at her. She knew she had to entertain Yuko’s whims at least for a little while though but in the mean time she was going to figure out a way to get out of here sooner rather than later.

“You can transform back to what you’re more comfortable in you know,” Yuko said as she picked up her pipe from the table in front of her. “Oh and please have a seat young lady; there are still a few more things we must discuss.”

“Oh great,” Natalie thought to herself. At this rate she was never going to get out of here. Taking Yuko’s suggestion she put her hand to the jewel in the center of her bow and in an instant flash of light she was back to wearing her favorite outfit, a t-shirt and jeans. Putting her pen safely away in her pocket, she took a seat in the chair opposite Yuko, putting the table between them.


	2. A Word of Caution

Natalie and Yuko sat in silence for a few minutes until Watanuki returned with a tray filled with finger snacks, a bottle of sake, two cups for the sake, and two cups of tea. Natalie wasn’t much for tea but she wasn’t going to be rude so when Watanuki placed the cup in front of her, she politely took a sip. She tried very hard not to make a sour face, Asian teas were always so bitter.

Yuko poured sake for herself and for Mokona then settled back on the couch. Mokona set to stuffing his face. “Now young lady…”

“Natalie…”

“Excuse me?”

“My name, it’s Natalie. You keep calling me young lady so I thought it was better to at least give you my first name.”

“Ah yes, Natalie. What a lovely name. Anyway, on to the other business I need to discuss with you.”

“I have no idea what that could be but yeah, what about those other things you said you wanted to discuss. I don’t mean to be rude but there are other places I had planned to go.”

Yuko chuckled. “Such a straight forward one you are, I like that. Alright then, I’ll come right to the point. What have you been told about yourself and your rather unique abilities?”

Natalie looked at Yuko confused. Why did Yuko care what she knew about her powers? “Well I know about my ability to travel worlds, obviously, and that I’m not allowed to take anyone from their world. I can use the portals within a world to travel from place to place too. That one doesn’t have the 'no taking others' rule, though it was recommended to me that I don’t do it. Oh and my offensive power, the Spatial Rift…” Natalie trailed off remembering that Watanuki was in the room when he shifted on his feet making her notice him.

“You have nothing to worry about. Watanuki is no harm to you. You should know that though, considering where you came from. I know you’ve read about me and this shop. I could tell pretty much the moment you arrived.”

“Because I knew about hitsuzen right? Oh and I didn’t question the inevitability that it means.”

“Yes, but given who you are, you would have found your way here one way or another.”

“You just made sure to high jack me sooner rather than later.”

“I did no such thing. The person who paid the price for your necklace arranged for that to happen.”

“You still haven’t told me who that was.”

“That’s right, if you’ll recall, I told you it wasn’t important right now, that you’d know someday.”

Well there went that. Natalie figured it wouldn’t hurt to try again since she had been given the opportunity to bring it up again.

“You did. Oh well. So anyway, I did have one more question about that necklace. You already explained, sort of, why I could talk to you but how come I had no trouble communicating when I was in Crystal Tokyo?”

“Simple, you’re one of them. The ability was, for lack of a better way of putting it, coded into your DNA. There will be other places that you go where you won’t have trouble communicating without the necklace but it’s still best if you just keep it on.”

Natalie nodded. “Fair enough.”

Yuko picked up her pipe and took another pull from it, slowly letting the smoke slip from her lips. As it did, it formed into a butterfly before drifting away. “So you said that Serenity told you of your taboo, no taking people from their world. Did she tell you the price you’d pay if you ever broke that taboo?”

Natalie shook her head. “No, she said she didn’t know what would happen if I broke the taboo.”

Yuko didn’t say anything right away. It looked as though she was thinking about something. Finally she nodded, “Probably better you don’t know the details for now, but for now I will say this, just make sure you don’t break the taboo unless you’re prepared to lose something precious to you.”

Natalie looked at her, confused again. She actually hadn’t really cared before now what the penalty was but after what Yuko said she suddenly found herself caring after all. “Something precious to me?”

Yuko waved off the question. “Don’t worry yourself about it. Never break the taboo and you won’t ever have to worry about it.” Yuko took a sip of her sake before continuing. “Now, there are some other things I think you should know. Since you are a child of the Silver Millennium, you now have the life span to go with it. You also have a far superior ability to heal yourself and avoid sickness than normal people. Guard that secret, if you don’t it’ll cause you problems.”

“Wait a second…”

“No, you’re not immortal, don’t think for a second you are. If you take a mortal wound you will die just like anyone else. This just means that it will take more to kill you than a normal person; non mortal wounds you receive will heal in half the time, maybe faster depending on the wound, as well. It also means that it will take you longer to die of natural causes and it will be harder for you to get sick. You can’t be any less careful though.”

“Got it.”

“Do you have anything else you wished to discuss with me or any other questions?”

Natalie thought about it for a minute. At this point she couldn’t think of anything else she needed or wanted to know. Even if there was, she was starting to get even antsier to leave than she had been. “Nope, I think I’m all set. But then if I do think of something I can always come back right?”

“This is very true.” Yuko took another pull of her pipe. “Oh! There is one more thing I wanted to mention to you. Don’t be surprised if people in other worlds refer to you as ‘The Ferryman’.”

“The Ferryman?”

“Yes. The Charon of myth was based on your previous life times. In the myths Charon was the one who ferried the dead across the river Styx to the afterlife. That myth grew from stories of people who witnessed your past lives’ powers and embellished those stories over the years. Don’t be surprised if people recognize you in that manner.”

“That’s good to know, thank you.” Natalie had started to grow more impatient at this point. “Is there anything else Yuko?”

Yuko could easily see Natalie’s growing impatience. “No there’s nothing more though I find it amusing that you’re in such a hurry to meet him. He’s only going to cause you trouble you know.”

Natalie’s eyes got a bit wide. How did Yuko know? Well she wasn’t called the dimensional witch for nothing; it really shouldn’t surprise her that Yuko knew. She tried to play it off like it was nothing. “I’m not sure I follow. Meet who?”

Yuko just chuckled thinking it best that she just left it alone. She’d find out soon enough what Yuko was talking about. This girl had already chosen her path, now it was just a matter of sitting back and seeing where she ended up. “Oh nothing, nothing at all.” Yuko motioned for Watanuki to come over. “Would you show our guest out? I’m sure she’s eager to get back to her travels.”

“Yeah, no problem Yuko,” he said as he went over to Natalie.

Standing up, Natalie bowed her head lightly to Yuko. “Thank you for your help and advice.”

“You’re welcome and have a safe journey,” Yuko replied as she waved them off.

Watanuki took Natalie to the door. “Be careful Natalie. I can only imagine the difficult situations you may find yourself in.”

“Thanks Watanuki.” She paused for a moment. “Um, is it alright if I transform and leave from here? I don’t think doing it outside would be the best idea.”

Watanuki chuckled. “I don’t see why not though I have a feeling no one would even notice you if you did do it outside.”

Natalie couldn’t help but to chuckle herself. She knew Yuko’s shop existed outside the time and space it appeared to sit in but it still didn’t make her feel any more comfortable.

Taking her pen from her pocket, she held it up. “Charon Star Power Make Up!” In a flash of light she was Sailor Charon once more. Taking her staff in hand, she opened the portal. “Thanks again Watanuki. It was nice meeting you!” she said as she stepped into the portal. In that instant, she was off on her journey once more.


End file.
